What is the swan-necks and sparklers argument about?
If you agitate the beer it foams up. This has the effect of taking bitterness from the body of the beer into the foam. The age old method of serving beer is to pour it direct from a tap in the cask. This spills out under the simple influence of gravity (hence the name given to this method of dispense) into a jug or glass. To put a pretty head on this beer hold the glass further below the tap. Handpumps draw the beer through pipes attached at one end to the cask to the other the spout. Obviously the beer is agitated a bit more as the beer is forced through the pipes, pump and valves. If small bore pipes are employed with many throws of the pump, or impeller pumps are used, the beer is shaken about rather more. If the spout is simply a tap with no restriction, then the beer is poured into the glass gently.
If you agitate the beer it foams up. This has the effect of taking bitterness from the body of the beer into the foam. The age old method of serving beer is to pour it direct from a tap in the cask. This spills out under the simple influence of gravity (hence the name given to this method of dispense) into a jug or glass. To put a pretty head on this beer hold the glass further below the tap. Handpumps draw the beer through pipes attached at one end to the cask to the other the spout. Obviously the beer is agitated a bit more as the beer is forced through the pipes, pump and valves. If small bore pipes are employed with many throws of the pump, or impeller pumps are used, the beer is shaken about rather more. If the spout is simply a tap with no restriction, then the beer is poured into the glass gently. On the other hand it may be a small diameter pipe, which is used nowadays, often in the form of a hairpin which has the effect of shooting the beer into the glass and really stirring i
